Vivian Stephens Helped Turn Romance Writing Into a Billion-Dollar Industry. Then She Got Pushed Out - Texas Monthly

Panzer was tootling around in the Catosphere when he decided to make a stop at the Texas Monthly site. With a little digging in the posts, our inquisitive kitty boy discovered one about Vivian Stephens. Panzer told you a few weeks ago about the Romance Writers of America naming a new award after her.

It's a really interesting story.

The post by Mimi Swartz reads as a history of Vivian Stephens life, both in and out of the Romance Writers of America group. In 1980 Vivian Stephens was the founder of the Romance Writers of America (RWA). It was interesting to her when in May of this year she got an email from the group asking to name an award after her. The interesting part of naming the award the 'Vivian' was that she had been largely ignored and forgotten by the group over the years. According to the Texas Monthly post, in the years since RWA was founded romance novels have gone from the 'bodice ripper' days to the 'independent, working woman' days. With that emergence romance writers have gone from the "have to have a regular, day job to support my writing" days to the romance writers ''making $100,000 (or more) per year'. Included in this post are links to information about the turmoil the RWA has been going through since last year and links to books about romance writing and its history.

Panzer says, "Hmm ... $100,000 a year?"

Note: This is a hugely humongous post. Bring a thermos of iced tea, a thermos of lemonade, a dozen muffins, your lunch and your dinner for today's reading selection. If you plan to read Panzer's previous post, you'll need a sleeping bag for a nap in between.

To read the post tootle over to Vivian Stephens
To read Panzer's earlier post about the Vivian Award, tootle over to RWA Award

Did Amazon's Audible inadvertently create the current royalties mess by incentivizing listeners to skip forward in the audibook? - The Hot Sheet reviewed. First edition - The New Publishing Standard

When Panzer got into the Panzermobile today he found a wadded up post under his pilot's seat. Smoothing it out our fastidious kitty discovered it was a post from The New Publishing Standard site which is a review of a The Hot Sheet post. The post is about Amazon's Audible subscription service.

In the The New Publishing Standard post Mark Williams quotes extensively from the March The Hot Sheet post about Amazon's Audible romance audiobook subscription service royalties schedule and author payment issues. In between the quoted material he inserts his opinions regarding the issues raised in The Hot Sheet post. According to the information contained in the March post, the payment rate was so abysmal authors were leaving the subscription service. Audible then decided to add a bonus for authors; however, no information was made available about how the bonuses were calculated. The post addresses other issues with the unlimited subscription service. There are links included in the post to other sites with information about the romance subscription service.

A fraction of a cent? Humans.

Panzer says, "Umm ... This little kitty is totally confused. Why would an author agree to a contract where you only make one one-thousandth of a cent per minute?"

Note: This is a h-u-m-o-n-g-o-u-s post. Bring a thermos of tea and four muffins for today's reading selection.

To read the post tootle over to Amazon's Audible

Smashwords' Summer Free and Discounted Ebooks Promotion

Every summer Smashwords has a ebooks promotion in July.  Ebooks in the promotion can be free, discounted 75 percent, 50 percent, or 25 percent. Authors can put any or all of their ebooks into the promotion. The prices are only good with the coupon code and at Smashwords.

I don't think you need an account to get free ebooks in the promotion, but, if they're discounted ebooks, you have to have an account to pay for them.

Below are our contributions to the promotion. Remember, you MUST use the coupon code.

Panzer says, "Happy reading while they're free!"


Cats and Crime (Use code SW100 to get it free)

Cat Wisdom for humans (Use code SW100 to get it free)

Romances included in the promotion:

Love's Decisions (Use code SW 100 to get it free)

Under New Management (No code needed. Always free.)